Nintendo's Smartphone Game Delay, Reward Progam Details, and Unannounced Games

Although Nintendo previously said it expects to launch the first of its smartphone/mobile games before the end of the year, it has now announced the game--called Miitomo--will be delayed.

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The news came by way of an investor presentation today in Tokyo, which the Wall Street Journal liveblogged. Slides from the presentation are available at Nintendo's investor website.

CEO Tatsumi Kimishima opened by discussing the Wii U and 3DS, saying additional unannounced titles are still on the way for both platforms and will be released before the end of the year.

Nintendo previously announced that it plans to launch five new smartphone/tablet games between now and March 2017. However, at the investor meeting, it said these games will not begin to launch until March 2016. Additionally, not all of these are guaranteed to have a global launch.

During a Q&A after the presentation, Nintendo revealed one of its mobile games will be called Miitomo. According to WSJ, "It will be free to play, with attractive add-ons that people can pay for. Other [games] will be pay-to-download."

Kimishima explained the delay was due to "the need for more lead time to fully promote and explain Miitomo." He went on to say the company is busy promoting other titles in the pipeline right now, but will start promoting Miitomo after the year-end holiday season. This will have "little impact on earnings," he added.

From the vague description of the game provided, Miitomo sounds similar to Tomodachi Life.

As expected, we also learned more about Nintendo's rewards system, which the company had previously said will be, “compatible with a variety of devices including PCs, smartphones, and tablets, as well as Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems."

The company previously said the new membership service will "encompass the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems," as well as its next gaming platform, codenamed NX.

The new membership service will be called Nintendo Account and will use "a cloud-based data service to transfer game data between mobile games and console games." The reward program will be called My Nintendo, but no additional details were provided regarding that service.

Following the announcements, Nintendo's stock was down 8.56 percent.